One I Love
by SerPounceALot
Summary: CLC Oneshot STRONGLY IMPLIED CHARACTER DEATH. // Prompt fill for Strifehart kink meme; Cloud and Leon are stranded and reluctant to admit their feelings for eachother.


**Title:** One I Love

**Pairings: **Leon/Cloud

**Rating: **M

**Warnings: **Strongly implied character death, buttsex

**Summary: **From prompt at Strifehart kink meme-_"Leon and Cloud go on a mission to get supplies they sorely need... unfortunately, their gummi ship breaks down and they are forced to make an emergency landing. With no way home and no way to contact anyone, they're stuck together.. which wouldn't be so bad- if they weren't so in denial about their feelings for each other."_

"We're gonna die here, you know."

Cloud paced as he spoke. His eyes darted from sky to ground to their broken ship and to the man hunched over it. This wasn't supposed to happen. Cid had checked their ship before they left on their short trip to retrieve some equipment from a neighboring planet. They weren't supposed to break down on some isolated, undeveloped world.

"I'm going to fix it, I just need to figure it out." Leon growled in response. He knew there was no way it would ever happen, but he still tightened and loosened the same bolt in desperation. His expertise was not with the mechanical. Give him the computer back in the bailey, give him any system and he was at home. A smoking engine left him perplexed as anyone else.

"It looks like the moon." the blond didn't try to improve his tone, but he was quick to change the focus of their conversation. The terrain was, in fact, gray and rocky and reminiscent of a lunar surface.

"Where I'm from, the moon was full of monsters." The brunette let out a sigh and dropped the wrench before he hit the ground himself. It was a hopeless situation, made none the better by his companionship.

It wasn't that Leon disliked Cloud. The problem was that his feelings were quite the opposite, and light years more troublesome. Their relationship was a mess of daytime indifference and nights of relentless passion; except Leon's passion extended right into the silent days. He was finding it harder to look into those ocean blue eyes with any expression that didn't convey his unrequited love.

"I'll keep that in mind." He stopped pacing. His eyes found their way to Leon's and rested there. While he would normally never admit it, even to himself, he had come to adore those eyes. He loved the feelings hidden in the blue, often the only hint of humanity to Leon's emotionless face. He loved that he could read them, was fluent in their language, and seemed to be the only one.

It was more than the eyes. Cloud loved the ragged scar between them, and the chocolate hair that sometimes covered them. He loved the thin lips, so rarely anything but a tight line. He loved the neatly shaven jaw line, the bobbing Adam's apple, and every inch that came below it. Cloud, in short, loved Leon.

The men, however, shared their self-set rejections. Neither would dare to mention that their feelings extended above the belt or existed when they weren't between the sheets. Their physical relationship was necessity; fevered passion they could find relief from without consequence in each other. Love was reserved for the weak-willed and the people foolish enough to entrust their hearts to strangers. Leon and Cloud would never admit that they were easily among that number.

That all applied, of course, before they were stranded on a barren planet with no hope for rescue and with a sun that was setting and a temperature dropping all too fast. They could easily avoid love when they weren't facing their final hours.

"How long you think we have?" Leon was terrified as he asked the question. He had his own estimate, and the number was grim. His heart tumbled against his ribs, making up for an anticipated eternity of rest.

"We might make it through a night." Cloud was being optimistic. He had never seen this sort of fear in those precious blue eyes, and it didn't sit well with him. Slowly, he moved to Leon's side and took a seat with him against their busted ship, "Guess it all depends how cold it gets."

"It's already cold." Leon whispered in return. He would use the chill in the air to explain the goose pimples on his arms and the hairs there stood on end. He tried to search for a bright side; at least he was there with Cloud. He could die next to the man he loved, even if he was too cowardly to admit as much.

"We'll be okay." Cloud spoke with conviction, and he moved with that same sense, slipping one arm around Leon and then the other. He rested his head against the older man's shoulder while one hand lay gently against a taut, muscular stomach. When Leon didn't pull away, he moved closer still until they were cheek to cheek, breath mingling.

"Cloud." the name felt good to say, and the blond's closeness was a reassurance. There was a moment there, half a heartbeat in which Leon felt that he could overcome the world. He parted lips to offer his admission, his vital confession. He was silenced, though, as the blond's mouth overtook his own.

They had kissed before. Heated, wet, passionate kisses had been laid by each upon the other. They were powerful and wonderful in their own rights, yet not a single one could match the electricity in this simple act. Cloud's lips caught over Leon's bottom in a gentle purse. He lingered there, then replaced lips with tongue, a quick slide before he tasted familiar territory with a new spice.

Cloud's movements were precise and careful and so gentle that Leon could scarcely believe this was the same man he had grown to love. He knew Cloud as rough and unrefined and even a little vicious. The man who was on him now, straddling him, pulling them both to the ground, this man was tender and loving but every bit as intense as he ever had been.

Their eyes locked when their lips parted. Leon inquired only with his eyes while battle-hardened hands were slipping him out of fur-lined jacket and white cotton shirt. Cloud did not immediately respond. Instead, in the orange-pink light of the setting sun, he surveyed a toned chest. Calloused fingers traced over the trademark silver lion guarding the bewildered man's heart, then followed scars and crease. He took in every detail he should have known by now, surveying the way he decided he always should have.

"I'm going to do this right." the blond finally explained. He was patient while he undid belt after belt, buttons and zippers and any number of pseudo-chastity measures between him and heaven, "I think it's my last chance. I have to do it right." his eyes were still glued to Leon's when he tossed aside the last belt and slipped down leather pants, just as delicate a motion as he could make it.

"Cloud." Leon loved the name as much as he loved the man attached to it. He loved to say it, in a whispered voice through what would certainly be one of his last breaths. He stared in adoration when Cloud went about discarding his own clothing. He added sweater and armor to the small pile. Leon decided he looked like an angel against the backdrop of purple haze.

Cloud pulled them both to lie on their sides, tugged Leon close until their bodies were flush. It wasn't until they were just as close as they could possibly be that Cloud began to lay his kisses again. He trailed them over warm skin at Leon's shoulder and up over it while his hand stroked them both to life.

Cloud was careful, when they came down to business. He apologized for his lack of foresight, not that it would be the first time they'd dealt with it. He took his time to prepare his lover for their final sin, lips never parting with skin in a method of distraction.

They were, though neither wanted to let themselves admit it, complete. Their bodies moved in rhythm, albeit clumsy. Cloud's hands tangled with Leon's, pinned over his head. Their lips fumbled and slipped over each other's, as hot and wet and tangled as the rest of their bodies were.

Time stood still.

There was no telling how long they stayed together, entwined and tangled and out of breath, riding the powerful waves of shared climax. The sun had disappeared by the time they had collapsed into each other, spent and shivering. Sweat turned cold on ivory skin, and they held to one another in a new sort of need.

"I love you, Cloud."

Leon didn't need to say it any more by the time he forced the words through trembling lips. It had been hours, or at least it felt that way, since the feelings were brought to the forefront. The fear was back, with a new flavor. He didn't want to die.

"Don't say that." Cloud's voice trembled when he spoke. He was grateful for Leon's arms circling around him just a little more tightly as he shook.

"Why not?" Leon kissed his temple. He could barely see, delirious with cold and blinded in a starless dark.

"You're giving up. You can't go first." Cloud scolded before he hid his face in the other man's chest. He searched for reassurance but only found a ghost of a heartbeat, struggling and stumbling.

"We go together." He gave another squeeze while he tried desperately to find Cloud's hand, to hold it tight as he could manage.

"I love you, Leon."

Cloud did not speak again.


End file.
